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baby

So LM is now 38 weeks old. I only used the phrase “38 weeks” for this blog. If anyone asks he’s almost 9 months, I’m not one of those annoying mummies. I hope!
Each week I go through the checklists in my Wonder Weeks book to see which new skills he’s mastered.
LM finished Leap 6 last week (thank god) but he is still mastering skills from Leap 4 and 5.
This week he’s started to try and “feed me”. It’s Usually just his teether, but he offers to share it and shove it in my mouth. If he offered to share actual food I might take him up on the offer!
He’s getting closer to crawling and is rolling around the room much more quickly. This is keeping me on my toes. Especially as our stair gate came off of the wall at the weekend and we’re still waiting for the plaster to dry out so we can put it back.
He seems to be teething a lot this week. I’m wondering if his 2 bottom teeth are about to make an appearance?

So, I return to work 2 weeks today. This scares the hell out of me! I’m worried about leaving LM, getting all the housework done around my job, working with an idiot that I’m now supposed to share my work with and also about how I’m going to dress. The wardrobe issue is probably the easiest to tackle.

Before I fell pregnant I had a work “uniform” of quirky outfits from Yumi and Desigual. I loved my work clothes! Since having LM I’ve lost 10kg in addition to my pregnancy weight. The result is that none of my pre-pregnancy clothes fit!
I’ve had to buy a new work “uniform”. This is the first time that I’ve had to really shop on a budget. I’m lucky that I live near an outlet centre so can get some bargains! As I’m sure you’re well aware: Statutory Maternity Pay is SHIT.
I’ve bought 2 pairs of slim boot cut jeans from M&S:

A denim skirt from Dorothy Perkins

And a cute Desigual skirt

I’ll pair these with basic T shirts and cardigans. Once I stop breastfeeding completely I’ll start to wear dresses again.
Hopefully these will all work together to help me feel more confident about returning to the office.
I’ll deal with my other worries later!!

Little Man is now 36 weeks old. Since he was born I’ve read a number of parenting books to discover when he should be hitting particular milestones and why he behaves in a certain way.
Every book that I’ve read has slightly different guidelines than the last so I quickly learned that there is no strict rule as to when babies hit milestones and that I shouldn’t read so many baby books!
I’ve stuck by 2 books/series as they seem to be based on studies of actual babies and parents as opposed to just opinions of parenting “experts”.
The first of these is the Wonder Weeks by Hetty van de Rijt and Frans Ploot. I have also got the app (App store on iPhone).

Their theory is based on studies of babies who’ve displayed the same behaviours at the same time since the due date. These periods are then linked to developmental leaps. The leaps then translate into skills.
The Wonder Weeks book describes each “leap” in detail. I’ve followed this since LM was 8 weeks old and it’s been pretty spot on to predict when he’ll have a leap in development. He’s cranky, sleeps poorly and is clingy pretty damned much when the book says he would be.
He’s currently on Leap 6 – the World of Categories. He’s a little “behind” in terms of the skills that he should display after each leap. He’s currently mastering some skills from Leap 4 – The World of Events and Leap 5 – The World of Relationships. All babies will master the skills that they’ve acquired at different rates and different orders. LM tends to master the Body Control skills before the others – this week he’s mastered attempting to crawl.
The book has helped me understand why LM is grumpy and sleeps poorly at certain times. It also suggests games, activities and other tasks which can help Baby and therefor help you.
There’s also a Milestones Guide – I’ll review this another time.
If you’re a new parent and have an interest in why and when your baby will develop mental skills, then translate them into physical skills I’d recommend reading this book. It’s available from Amazon and most good book retailers.
The second series is Gentle Parenting by Sarah Ockwell-Smith. I’ll review this later.

My Little Man will be starting nursery 4 days a week when I return to work in 4 weeks time. As a result he’ll need to be able to drink formula milk from a bottle as I won’t have time to express enough milk to send to nursery with him.
I’ve exclusively breast fed him for the first 8 months of his life. I’m super proud of this achievement and sad that I’ll need to reduce this bonding time. Due to being exclusively breastfed he isn’t keen on taking a bottle.
We’ve so far tried 4 different brands of bottle and 5 different bottles before we’ve finally found one which he accepted. I’ll review these in a later post.
We’ve also tried 2 brands of formula! He flat out rejected the Cow & Gate stage 2 formula, so we tried the Aptimil Follow on Milk, he’s accepted this on the second try.
I’ve decided to try and get him used to Formula on the bedtime feed first as this is the only feed where my husband is consistently home to help. It’s taken 3 bedtimes before LM has taken the bottle and then gone to sleep. For the next few weeks we’ll continue this.
After a week or so I’ll try to swap his morning nap feed for formula and continue this for a week or so to allow my milk supply to adjust and to enable LM to get used to it.
After a week of that I’ll do the same with his afternoon feed.
After this, all being well I’ll pick back up the bedtime feed and swap his early evening feed. The reason for this is that I’d still like to feed my Little Man but I think this will be limited to his wake up, bedtime and night feeds.
I’m hoping that my body will adjust! I’ll keep the blog updated with my progress.

Yesterday was my 30th birthday. I’d been fearing this day for a while as it marked the end of my 20’s and made me ponder whether I’d achieved everything that I wanted.
When the day arrived I had such a wonderful time that I didn’t stop to worry about getting old (why the fox did I worry anyway?).
I woke up to my beautiful smiley baby and a cup of tea accompanied by presents. I received a Jawbone Up3 fitness tracker, a rucksack, a personalised cup, lots of chocolate, a scratch card, cash, candles and a bracelet. I’m super lucky to have such amazing friends and family.
When we got out of bed my hubby made a full English breakfast- my favourite- it was delicious!!
I was then taken to a lovely little salon for a Hot Stone Massage. Hubby looked after the Little Man.
We then went to So Thai -my favourite- for lunch. It was Devine and the waitresses were fantastic with Little Man.
We stopped by Toys R Us to pick up a Walker for LM, then headed home.
We finished the evening with a Personalised cake from Choccywoccydoodah -my favourite- and some Edinburgh gin -my favourite-.
I’m sure you can see a theme here. My husband planned the perfect day for me doing all of my favourite things. I know I whine about him sometimes but I am really lucky to have him.

A friend of mine who hasn’t had the *privaledge* of a baby yet asked what my life was like as a Mum who never wanted kids… here’s a day as me:
My day began at 01:30 when LM decided that scooting around his cot and shouting at his mobile were an excellent idea. A 15 minute feed and lots of rocking later he finally went back to sleep.
7:15 – I get up and get myself ready for a trip to London for our nieces 5th birthday party. LM wakes up as I’m trying to do my make-up and shouts very loudly at a Rocket he can’t reach on his mobile. I go and get him to avoid waking the neighbours.
7:40 – I continue to do my make-up with LM laying on my bed intently watching me. I smudge mascara all over my face when LM decides to laugh at Christ knows what. I remove all make-up and start again.
8:00 – I take LM downstairs and make hubby and I a cup of tea whilst preparing LMs breakfast. I have to rescue the cat from the baby twice.
8:15 – I feed said breakfast to LM. He shouts at me as I don’t shovel porridge in his gob quickly enough.
8:30 – I get LM changed and dressed, then prepare his bag for the day.
8:45 – I hoof down a croissant and scalding tea.
9:00 – we leave the house after filling the car with all the shit LM needs for the day.
11:40 – we arrive at the Sister in Laws house and unpack all the Shit that was packed into the car. LM is ceremoniously passed around Auntie, Uncle, Nanny, Grandpa and Brother in laws parents. I enjoy a coffee.
12:10 – I am handed a sandwich and get to have 2 mouthfuls before LM wants his lunch. I feed LM his lunch with 7 adults telling him he’s a good boy. LM smiles at the attention, spitting said lunch over my Desigual top.
12:45 – I wash up from LMs lunch and get roped in to do all of the washing up. LM is again passed around adults and told he’s beautiful (of course he is- I made him!)
13:00 – most adults leave to set up party. I am left in charge of LM, a 5 year old and a 2 year old to get them all ready for said party.
13:20 – LM has a milk feed and falls asleep on the boob. I stealthily dress him in his pram suit without waking him. Hubby arrives back to help with other kids.
13:30 – 15 minute walk across Waterloo to said party. I end up pushing the 2 year olds pushchair while hubby pushes LM. 2 year old appears to weigh double! How was that fair. Nibble on way too much party food as I don’t want it to be wasted. I love party food!
14:00 – 15:30 – party central. I get to play with random toddlers as my baby is played with and cooed at by every adult in the room. Not a fair swap! I also get roped into helping with party games. Yay.
15:30 – walk back to Sister in Laws house to bundle us back into the car. We’re given some Christmas gifts from Nan, who forgot to give them to us at Xmas.
16:00- we leave SILs house and realise we’ve left LMs water bottle at the party venue. Drive back to collect said water bottle as LM won’t drink from anything else (my boobs don’t count)
16:30 – we finally leave central London. LM whinges for 30 minutes so I feed him crisps (they are baby crisps – I’m not a twat)
17:15 – LM full on screams for 20 minutes as I can’t give him boob while we drive
17:35 – we stop at the next services and I feed LM in the back of the car while hubby runs in and gets us coffee.
17:54 – we get back on the road. LM babbles in a milk drunk haze before falling asleep. I am super jealous.
18:55 – we arrive home and I realise LM has crisps stuck to his jeans
19:30 – I finally get to shower and get out of my filthy clothes. LM plays with hubby and cats.
20:00 – bath and bedtime feed for LM
20:45 – I head downstairs, starving after LM has nodded off. Eat half a bar of chocolate while waiting for hubby to arrive home with our fish and chips and watch the baby monitor praying LM doesn’t disturb me.
21:20 – hubby arrives home with the fish and chips from Ruddys in Gloucester and my God are they good! We eat our dinner and discuss how amazing our little man is.
22:30 – LM wakes up crying, hubby waits for me to go to him (of course he does). As soon as I sit in the chair in his room he falls back asleep, I wait for 10 minutes before putting him back in his cot.
22:45 – I get in to bed and try to sleep
22:55- a recovery truck arrived outside to pick up a broken down car. The lights and noise mean I can’t sleep
23:30 – recovery truck leaves. I get back into bed
23:35 – LM wakes up crying for milk. I go and feed him.
00:05 – he goes back to sleep and I finally get to go to sleep.
While reading this back I’ve realised that even though Hubby wasn’t at work for this day, he didn’t do much to help with LM. I’ve also realised that he never does. I think he’s got up with LM once overnight since he was born but that’s a rant for another day.
He wonders why I never have energy for him any more… maybe he should read this post.